The CU2.0 Podcast

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Amarildo is head of Harness FI and, yes, he has a last name that you will hear him pronounce in the opening seconds of the podcast.  

Here's the good news about what Amarildo - a longtime Mastercard employee turned fintech exec (and he talks about that transition) - and his team are doing at Harness giving credit unions tools that let them add new powers to old credit cards.

Such as? Harness - literally in days - created a tool that allowed participating institutions to implement a program where members could opt in to allow their credit card to donate money to be dispensed in assistance for victims of California's wild fires.

They have similar tools for hurricane and tornado relief programs.

More broadly, what Harness has are tools that let credit card issuers enable members to roundup purchases to help fund local charities - participating credit unions designate the eligible charities - and also to add gamification to further help keep users using their credit cards.

It gets better. Harness requires no core access, not even access to payments systems.  Amarildo explains in the podcast how they access the information Harness needs - and he stresses that Harness houses no member card data.

Implementation at a credit union usually takes a week or two, he says. 

He also said that Harness can do everything involved in rolling out Harness at an institution - including marketing - or it can pare down its involvements for a credit union that wants to take a DIY approach.

Ask yourself this? How many credit cards issued by your institution are inert bricks in members' wallets?  Wouldn't you want to know about tools that just might bring those slabs of plastic back to life?

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here.

Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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People are staying in their homes longer. That is fact.

One upshot is that more homeowners are planning more ambitious home renovation projects.

But many have had problems getting a loan for the full amount needed - a kitchen remodel for instance can cost upwards of $30,000.

Enter Housetable, a New York based startup that is bringing multiple new ideas to this issue.  The big idea: it will lend on the after renovation value of the home.  That can put significantly more money on the table to fund this project.

Housetable also will monitor the renovation as it proceeds - via its app and video - and it handles disbursements to the contractor and, of course, it checks on the updated status of the project before issuing a payment.

Housetable implements quickly at a credit union. CEO David Benizri said that it typically takes one to two months.

Benizri added that he sees Housetable working well in big credit unions but also institutions as small as $50 million.  There is very little lift required on the part of the credit union to get this loan offering up and running with members.

Housetable is venture and angel funded. Benizri gives the details in the show.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here.

Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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 Here is where the pedal hits the metal. In this show credit union executive retirement compensation expert Kirk Kordeleski tells how the credit union senior executives can persuade their board to agree to market rate retirement plans that may well involve multiple millions of dollars for the executive team.

That's big money. It takes a smart argument to persuade. Kordeleski tells the argument and, in a bonus, he tells how he in fact convinced the board of Bethpage Credit Union to enact a market rate retirement plan for Kordeleski and other senior executives.

This is not blue sky hypothesizing. This is a genuine playbook. Kordeleski has been in these trenches - and he's here to report on what worked.

But the show isn't just for senior credit union executives. Board members too need to listen, to discover how compensation at credit unions with a strategy for success have to come together.

Listen up.

Want to know more about SERPs - or other matters raised in this podcast? Email Kordeleski [email protected]

This show is in a Money Talks series where credit union compensation is untangled.  This show will help some executives negotiate better pay packages and will also help some board members understand the ways in which 2022 credit union compensation is utterly different from 1992 comp plans, even 2012 plans because now competition for talent is so much fiercer.

Hear episode one in Money Talks here.  Episode 2 is here. Episode 3 is here. Episode 4 is here. Episode 5 is here. Episode 6 is here.

Have suggestions for topics to explore in this show? Email me, Robert McGarvey - rjmcgarvey@gmail

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James White believes that the answer is in the data and he insists that credit unions already have plenty of data to fuel  enormous leaps in member engagement.  And the company where he now works -Total Expert where he is industry principal for banks and credit unions - has plenty of tools to help a credit union get with 21st century marketing techniques.

Lots of credit unions still are skittish about newstyle marketing but face reality: competitors from Bank of America to Apple to Venmo all are winning increasing shares of member business and they are doing it by unleashing contemporary marketing tools.

Case in point: do you know when a member lists his/her house for sale? You should because that is a prime moment to contact that member and explore his interest in a new mortgage. Total Expert has tools that make this easy and White tells about them.

Another case: what is your institution doing to prepare for an enormous transfer of wealth in the coming years as Baby Boomers die? Will those assets remain at your credit union when it becomes the property of heirs? White explores this in the podcast.

In one respect this is a show about big data but White never mentions Hadoop, Spark or any of the techie tools. What he talks about instead is how credit unions can put data to practical use.  You don't need a propeller cap to get what he is talking about because this is a show filled with practical observations and tips that are meant to help credit unions compete.

Did we mention that some of the nation's very biggest credit unions use these Total Expert tools?  But so do institutions that are much smaller.

Consider this a master class in the practical applications of big data.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here.

Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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Today's credit union leadership - especially at the nation's best and biggest credit unions- is professional and deeply versed in financial services. But that wasn't always so in credit union land. This episode opens with Kirk Kordeleski - onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the nation's biggest, and now an executive at OM Financial Group, which specializes in SERPs which are building block retirement plans for key credit union executives - giving us a history lesson on the five generations of credit union leadership. He starts way back when everybody was a volunteer and takes us to today where we now are moving into a sixth generation of post Baby Boomer leadership.  

Then we take up what has become a challenge in many credit unions' budgeting: payroll in general and executive salaries and total comp in particular.  What Kordeleski says boils down to this: in most cases nowadays you get what you pay for.

And today credit unions need exceptional leadership as we shift into an environment of inflation, possible recession, and where liquidity is a key but liquidity also often is hard to come by.

Remember, this is the onetime CEO of one of the nation's biggest - and most aggressive - credit unions and he is offering what amounts to free consulting insights.

Take notes, it's all good stuff.

You may not always agree with Kordeleski but you will learn from him.

Listen up.

Want to know more about SERPs - or other matters raised in this podcast? Email Kordeleski [email protected]



This show is in a Money Talks series where credit union compensation is untangled.  This show will help some executives negotiate better pay packages and will also help some board members understand the ways in which 2022 credit union compensation is utterly different from 1992 comp plans, even 2012 plans because now competition for talent is so much fiercer.


Hear episode one in Money Talks here.  Episode 2 is here. Episode 3 is here. Episode 4 is here.


Have suggestions for topics to explore in this show? Email me, Robert McGarvey - [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

 Free. That's a price you don't hear for a core system - particularly not one with over 100 installations globally and with a pedigree that includes executives who played central roles in bringing the DNA core to market and that core today is integral to Fiserv's product line.

The company is Open Banking Solutions and you haven't heard of it or its core because its cloud-based core is in use in much of Latin America.  Now it is coming to the US.

Also in the product mix is mobile first digital banking, an automated collections tool, and business intelligence and reporting tools.

Peter Maher, chief commercial officer, added that the company's target market are credit unions between $50 million and $500 million in asset size.

The reason? Many of those institutions are stuck using outdated cores that just don't let these credit unions keep pace with market needs.

He insisted the Open Banking Solutions' product suite is exactly the fix those credit unions need.

Keep in mind, too, that these tools - developed in Latin American markets - are effortlessly bilingual, Spanish and English.

And now the company is looking for a credit union or two to pilot the debut of the core in the US market.  Free of charge. Maher tells what they are looking for in the podcast.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here.

Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

Send us Fan Mail

There's gold in them there hills.

That used to be the rallying cry for miners especially in the Southwest and California but listen closely in CU c-suites today and you may here a new cry: There's gold in our data.

Wait, you may be shouting. Didn't all those big data projects at credit unions a decade ago fizzle out? Well, maybe not all...but a lot did.

Today however is very different. There is a lot more data from a lot more sources. And there also is exponentially more computing power and tools for crunching that data.

Meet Jamie Jackson, CEO and founder of Arkatechture, a CUSO with a data analytics focus.

Here's what Arkatechture does: It "helps credit unions streamline the collection, cleansing, analysis, and sharing of data for the purposes of operational excellence, business intelligence and predictive analytics."

Should you close that branch? Should you shut down car refinancing? What will be the impacts of rising interest rates on your HELOC business? And how many members will you lose over the next few years?

You could guess at the answers. Or you could run the numbers and come up with data supported positions.

Arkatechture is in the business of helping credit unions use numbers and data in their decision-making. Along the way in this podcast Jackson talks about making better use of data to personalize member offers and even dazzling ideas such as perhaps monetizing the data you have.

Do we mean there might be a revenue stream lurking in your data? Exactly.

Jackson also talks about why the company went the CUSO route.

It's a provocative podcast

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

Send us Fan Mail

 The stark reality is that as interest rates edge up - and already in much of Europe inflation has climbed above 10% in the year and interest rates will follow - a fresh new look is being given credit union executive retirement plans.

It is just is exponentially harder - and more expensive - to plan retirement in a high inflation world.

Accept that funding such plans will cost more. Maybe a lot more.

But not funding it has its own costs starting with  loss of executive talent and difficulty in recruiting new talent.

In this show,  Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the nation's biggest, and now an executive at OM Financial Group, which specializes in SERPs which are building block retirement plans for key credit union executives, untangles the fast changing environment for executive retirement planning and he looks at it from the viewpoint both of senior execs but also the board members who will have to authorize such plans.

No one talks about income, definitely not in the credit union world. But in this show you will here the facts.

Be prepared to be surprised.

Want to know more about SERPs - or other matters raised in this podcast? Email Kordeleski [email protected]

This show is in a Money Talks series where credit union compensation is untangled.  This show will help some executives negotiate better pay packages and will also help some board members understand the ways in which 2022 credit union compensation is utterly different from 1992 comp plans, even 2012 plans because now competition for talent is so much fiercer.

Hear episode one in Money Talks here.  Episode 2 is here. Episode 3 is here.

Have suggestions for topics to explore in this show? Email me, Robert McGarvey - [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

You know what we are talking about? Then you have to get to know Kris Kovacs, CEO of Constellation, a CUSO birthed to make it easy for a credit union to add the tech it wants, from AI tools to crypto to pretty much whatever you imagine because Constellation is open to adding fintech tools that its customers want.

This is a smashing of the technology walls that, for  decades, have created moats around credit unions that kept them - and their members - removed from the tech they truly wanted.

Sounds like magic? It kind of is and in the show today Kovacs - himself a longtime credit union executive until he left to launch Constellation - explains exactly what Constellation does and how.

Along the way he gives a strong endorsement for going the CUSO route - he has never had investors at his door demanding quick sales now!  Constellation enjoyed the time to develop the tools and services it knew credit unions wanted and needed.

Kovacs also tells why credit unions just may be a perfect customer for many fintechs and, surprise, speed of adoption is a key credit union strength when it comes to financial technology.  Kovacs tells why.

If you want to regain optimism about how credit unions can beat off mega banks on the one hand and neo-banks and quasi banks on the other this too is the show for you.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

Send us Fan Mail

Ask Jaime Marks how she sees her role in the credit union universe and her answer comes fast: cheerleader.

She is a true believer in the credit union mission and the credit union difference.

Most recently she has been a vice president at California Credit Union but along the way she has worked at CoastHills Credit Union, also Ent Credit Union.

Now buckle up for a wide ranging discussion that explores where credit unions are heading.

Central to that voyage is the credit union's culture and, quick question, in a few words what is the culture of your credit union?

Clichés don't score. Neither do hollow words. What - really - is the essence of the culture?

In this discussion she references a recent American Banker article that names the best credit unions to work for.

We also talk about State Employees Credit Union which has announced its appointment of a Chief Culture Officer.

When the nation's second biggest credit union tabs culture as critical to succeed, that's a hint that this is a topic that matters. really matters.

There's more in this show - how to succeed in business banking, a quick question to ask an REI employee, and also what life is like on the merger merry-go-round.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto